Being a Leader

Players were asked two questions:
1) How much do you enjoy being in a leadership position?
2) Are you a guild leader?

Overall, male players find leadership positions more enjoyable than female players and younger players are more likely to enjoy leadership positions than older players (r = -.18), but this does not translate into any differences in actual leadership likelihood. Proportionately, female players are just as likely as male players to be guild leaders (between 14-16%). Also, there is no age difference between players who are and are not guild leaders. And among players who are guild leaders, there is no difference between male and female players as to how much they enjoy being a leader (p = .21).

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A multiple regression showed that the Achievement and Socializing motivations are the best predictors for whether a player enjoyed being in a leadership role (r-squared = .17). On the other hand, the Relationship and Mechanics motivations are the best predictors for who was an actual guild leader (but this regression model was much weaker, r-squared = .05).

The disparities between desired and actual leadership are interesting. Even though younger, male players find leadership positions more enjoyable, this does not bear out among actual guild leaders. The shift in motivations is also intriguing. Perhaps we're seeing the difference between group leaders and guild leaders - the former more likely to be chat/social-oriented and the latter more relationship management oriented. The next step seems to be to explore whether guilds with male leaders are different from guilds with female players in terms of guild size and casual vs. hardcore.

This article was posted on the Daedalus Project on October 17, 2005 9:42 PM.